a hotchpotch of many flavors

いよいよ明日は！ #アイマスハッチポッチ2


— 凪庵（なぎあん） (@nagian) Mar 28, 2025

hotchpotch 2 was held at saitama super arena this past weekend. hotchpotch, webster’s defines, is when the casts from idolmaster intermingle into a fine concert stew. while million live is formally under the 765 umbrella, live events in their standard idolmaster template are limited strictly to the members of each core branch, meaning you won’t normally see haruka showing up next to julia, or miki being glazed by tsubasa. the events like this where we do see branches cross over, masters of idol world most famously and one-offs like ijigen fes recently, have become legendary exceptions for this reason. hotchpotch, absent other branch equivalents, and tagging in the talent and core discography that has guided the franchise’s 20 year history, means it is especially revered by anyone like me that you will allow to chew your ear off.

quite a lot has changed for idolmaster in the interim since hotchpotch was first held in 2017, and it is less a gap in absence and more a considerable gulf. interest in live entertainment in japan, pertinent to a branch formulated around concerts, has mostly bounced back from a dramatic covid crater. bamco has fully embraced live streaming, and the FOMO of not being on-site for a live has been significantly reduced. mirishita, now nearing an eighth anniversary, back in 2017 would still coexist alongside the original GREE feature phone game on its first year in service. murmurs of a million live anime announcemement that also swirled then, cycled once again by the 4th anniversary PV tagging back in A-1 veterans, no longer register as strongly as the anticipations following their movie cameos, sideM sidestepping the preordained order, and a surprise additional stop on the 6th live tour that was supposed to finally tee things up. it was not until the year after, during an anniversary stream, that we would get signs of life when shirogumi was tapped to imagine it as 3DCG. leaving fans to mutter to themselves again after shiny colors was given a 3DCG kiss of death, it would be another three years before it eventually made its way to broadcast. the critiques, neither of astounding praise or utter contempt, fall somewhere north of adequate, depending on your initial feelings about the ambition of computer-generated cat faces. million live, in a nutshell, has always felt to this definition: managed with ambition, and respected by its fans, but also with a sense that it remains forever adrift, out on its own isle.

million live has never escaped being a middle child. drawing the demographic boundaries around branches, it is sometimes, with only a touch of snark, considered a retirement home. as the bridge back to 765AS (765 allstars), it is in many ways lucky to be dyed with an even-tempered fanbase that has already lived through multiple lukewarm console releases, confused adaptations¹, and less than fair conditions for a franchise that has appeared on the brink of extinction before. it has lived long enough to see its sibling branches also enter old age, made more painful by a planning leak suggesting baton passes and game sunsets that has so far continued mostly to spec. cindrella girls, despite content reductions and bleeding the interest elections once carried, for now continues to be a workhorse with deresute, and still measures some successes like U149 that extend beyond its direct orbit. 765AS has seen the the stars realign and rushed to get a half-baked arcade game out in time, an interesting cling to the past where their live events have otherwise forged ahead. sidem has been excommunicated and shipped off to saint helena so it may live out another end of service. on the other end, new entrants have been either slow burns, or roaringly successful beyond even generous expectations. million live, by comparison, has largely traveled sideways in stasis. it has never ruled the realm of secondary contents, or held that crown or mindshare even briefly at its peak. the anime, a touch too late and airing a touch too early for it be the entry point other adaptations were, did not attract streaming audiences that weren’t already invested, but had allegiance enough to record impressive disc sales. the korean and taiwanese servers for mirishita, toes dipped in the water judging global expansion, ended service and flushed whatever interest remained back downstream to blue archive. that the base game continues to hum on sales rankings running alongside shinyson, though, is a feat that says more about shinyson’s failure to launch than mirishita’s longevity, even if it is a longevity with loyalty enough to chart meaningful bumps during anniversary events².

hotchpotch 2 is a precise point on that loyalty. after 11th live’s abrupt cancellation this past november, a trauma that prevents me from ever wanting to do a weekender trip again, hotchpotch 2 is now bridging the abnormally long gap left from its announcement at the end of 10th with no concerts between it. some, jokingly, have taken to calling it 10th act 5, a wink to 10th’s final performance last year and also 6th’s sudden addendum. nothing at this age of a franchise can be considered a given, and while million live has not lost ambition, it is presenting at an interesting crossroads where it is floating with uncertainty. 10th’s peak, managing to wrangle the entire cast together for one concert, is one that is unlikely to be repeated at all, and 11th’s mission statement in beginning to target specific character-themed lives feels as much a recognition that we’re coming down from the top of the mountain, even when the follow-up happens to be one that dragged me out of any thought of retirement. hotchpotch 2, by comparison already at the time of its announcement, is comparable to a reunion tour and a chance to make good on past and remaining appetites. the initial hotchpotch was a touch too early for a new wave of fans that entered after mirishita, and its sequel is now a window for the lingering long tail of that wave that stuck around this far out, plus the old wave that celebrated the first event and are already committed to riding until the wheels fall off. together, they have tempered each other, and keep the 765AS diehards from descending entirely into no mutants allowed.

hotchpotch was venerated not just for its cast comingling, but also for how it was able to perfectly pepper surprises in a setlist plucked from classics. tenchan and aberika on little match girl. mocho with harami on kiss. kouri on arcadia. the problem with this expectation is that, by hotchpotch 2, much of the low hanging fruit like this has already been picked. there is always the possibility that a classic like virgin load will one day appear in concert, but that would be mostly only to my satisfaction. for hotchpotch 2, many of those 765AS classics do still show, and while the setlist is not without its share of surprises, it seems to be as much aware of the moment by falling back to orimen (original member) groups almost by default. in a hotchpotch, anything certainly goes, and seeing a full-cast hoshikuzu no symphonia and diamond joker is as much an expectation here as beat the world was the first go around. the setlist, as a total, still punches with a matching emotional weight; appreciated in million live’s greater context, though, it is absolutely a seized opportunity and a staff entirely aware that the chances of a three-peat reside uphill when it already took seven years to get another crack this time. while the meal does fill me up all the same, in a world of endless combinations and possibilities that already gifts us punny combinations of funny logic, it is hard not to wonder what galaxies of flavor we may be missing out on.

broaching this criticism should be paired with a mindfulness that a balanced setlist, for both performers and audiences, takes savvy to assemble, as much as we would like to pretend the fans can do it better. jungo has been at this for all too long, and while he has sponged more criticism than he has probably needed to absorb in the post-3rd live era, the logistical difficulities of an expanding discography make crowd pleasers inherently tough to target. positive is an arcade classic, and while the calls for it are lodged deep into the lobe on my brain that also involuntarily breaks into furicopy, you would be hard pressed to think anyone in the venue on the day knew them based on the relative silence I heard on stream. all grumblings aside, there is far more for me to celebrate here that fell right into my lap. any atsuki highlight is a sure pleaser, even when she is having her twintails threatened. do-dai is maybe my favorite song altogether within 765, and apparently it’s nigo’s as well³. maji de and do the idol⁴ are not machiuke prince, but takafumi satou songs they are nonetheless. yuiton became only the second navel-presenting puchi with lalala wonderland. it is here that we should acknowledge that a crowded cast is a super power that many of million live’s tour lives don’t have access to, which keeps filler to a reasonable limit. hotchpotch 2, despite the name, is careful to thread itself away from the similiar setlist refrains that can dog previous events, and I think has executed well enough to prove that the formula has legs beyond its initial debut.

hotcpotch ended without incident, and to my social media snooping mostly positive reception, but it also floated high enough to fling us back into uncertainties. all of the expectations for 11th reburn details (the presumptive name, after 7th’s redo) clouded here with the same confidence that hung over potential anime announcements, and instead, we’ve been treated to more meaningful details about the upcoming 12th live this year without so much as a crumb about 11th. for what is supposed to be a potential shift in how concerts are approached, this announcement for 12th feels uneased with itself by needing to couch itself in apologies, and is a bitter sting to close the curtain on what was otherwise a strong event. has bamco forgotten how to count in a new way?

maybe more amusing, then, is that the anime is also still hanging in the balance this far out, now that an OVA is on the way without much urgency. for any longtime fan, the ambiguities are more familiarities at this stage. perhaps with more loyalty than anything else, million live is continuing to proceed at its own winding pace, retreading old ground and, sometimes, stumbling into new territory. now that it has seen the top of the mountain, perhaps it will also allow itself to take a breather, and figure out what sort of path is best for it ahead.